John Osborne
Six hungry Beavers went to the greater Bozeman, Montana metropolitan area
this past weekend and showed their strength. Dave Varoujean, Dave Kuhns,
Justin Demaille, Ryan Carpenter, Blake Hendrich and Gabe Wasil spent more
than two dozen hours trapped in a couple vans to race against the rest of
the NWCCC.
First up was the circuit race (with short 2 mile laps). Ryan Carpenter,
competing in Men C, placed second in his first NWCCC event in over a year.
Not only that, he won two primes. Gabe Wasil placed 15th, and Blake Hendrich
had to with draw because of mechanical problems. In Men B, Justin Demaille
took 4th and 8 prime points. In Men A, Dave Varoujean placed third, his
second consecutive top three finish. Dave Kuhns placed 8th.
Later on Saturday, the time trial was held. OSU fielded only two teams, a
Men C and a Men A. Ryan, Gabe and Blake made up the Men C team, while Justin
moved up and rode with "Dave squared." The Men C team came in with a time of
42:36:15, good for second place in their category. The Men A team started a
trend and also finished second in their category with a time of 36: 27.23.
Finally, on Sunday, the road race was held. Ryan placed third in the Men C
road race. Gabe placed 26th and Blake 33rd. With results like these (two
seconds and a third on his first weekend), we hope Ryan can be convinced to
race more next year! Justin earned one of his best results of the season in
the Men B road race: a victory! It must have made the long ride home a
little sweeter. In the Men A road race, Dave Varoujean again showed he was a
hard man. He inserted himself into a break that at one point had 15 minutes
on the field. In the end, he took second place. Going bake to last weekend,
that's five top three finishes in six events. In the group, Dave Kuhns made
his way to the front and took fifth place, one of his best results on the
year.
After four weeks, OSU has moved firmly into third place in overall team
standings. We've consistently edged out PSU, UW and UO. In individual
standings, Ryan, through one outstanding weekend, has moved into 7th overall
in Men C. Pam Archer, though only racing Women B on two weekends, is still
leading that category and may take a podium place. In Men B, Jeff Ballantine
is now in fifth place and Justin in sixth. Sixteen points separate second
through sixth, so both Justin and Jeff could earn podium places with strong
results in Idaho. In Men A, Dave V has moved into third overall and is
likely to go to nationals if he hasn't already secured a spot. Dave K has
moved up to seventeenth.
Next week, the Beavers pedal their way around Pullman, Washington and
Moscow, Idaho, in conference championships. There are two big goals: third
place, overall, as a team, and having Dave, Dave and Lars Holmgren earn a
trip to Nationals.
John Osborne